Management is usually learnt from
a textbook.We get our basic management
knowledge in this way. But, does this allow us to become good mangers or
leaders? If we are naturals then the answer might be yes. Most of us have to
learn and fine tune our management knowledge. That is not all. We then have to
put that knowledge into practice.

This seminar explores where we can get the knowledge from
and considers how we can use those skills in order to effectively manage
situations.

What do we mean by management
styles?

How do we develop our management
styles?

Where can we learn the art of
management?

Theories of Leadership

The earliest studies of the
leader were those carried out by people such as F W Taylor and Henri Fayol.
These were the command and control theory X type approaches to management.

The reader should note that
writers on leadership have succeeded in achieving very little uniformity in
reaching an agreed definition of leadership.

This lack of uniformity is well
illustrated by John Adair in 1968. Adair showed some of the leadership
qualities looked for in the US Marine Corps, The Royal Naval College Dartmouth,
and the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell.

Trait Theories

Some of the better known Trait
theories were those devised by Edwin Ghiselli who saw the traits required in a
leader as :

Abilities : supervisory,
intelligence and initiative

Personality : decisive, self
assured, ability to direct/lead, maturity, and an affinity with the workers.

Motivation : need for
occupational advance, need for self actualisation, need for power and the need
for security.

David McClelland researched the
traits of the managerial achiever. The managerial achiever displayed the
following leadership traits :

wants more responsibility

wants moderate to difficult
feedback

wants clear feedback on
performance

is usually prepared to take risks

is usually a perfectionist

is usually in a hurry, and is
often unsociable.

McClelland states that traits
will vary depending on what has already been achieved.

Traits theory has fallen out of
fashion, because of the difficulty identifying a precise set of traits that a
leader should possess.

Style Theories

The Style theories of leadership
developed after 1950. One of the earliest writers was Rensis Likert.

Likert believed that managers
could be classified in the following categories

Exploitive Autocratic

Benevolent Autocratic

Consultative

Participative

In 1958 Tannenbaum and Schmidt
published the now famous continuum of leadership styles.

The Ashridge Studies 1966 are of
the tell, sell, consult or join style whilst 1960 saw Douglas McGregor publish
" The Human Side of Enterprise" famous for the Theory X, Theory Y
styles of leadership.

Another variation on the style
theme is the work of Huneryager and Heckman in 1967. They identified four
styles of leadership :

a) dictatorial

b) autocratic

c) democratic

d) laissez faire

These styles bear a close
relation to those of Likert, albeit the titles are different. Reinventing the
wheel?

The style theories approach went
out of fashion for the simple reason that it was too static a theory in that
assumed we had the same style of management to all people and all situations.
The defects in the style theories approach led to the development of the
contingency / situational approach to management.

Contingency School / Situational School

The late 1960's saw the work of
Fred Fiedler and the so called Contingency school of leadership.

Contingency is a dynamic,
constantly moving theory. It sees leadership as a relative process.

Fred Fiedler concluded that group
performance was dependent upon the leader adopting the style which was
appropriate to the situation. The style adopted would depend on key factors :

1 leader / member relations

2 the degree of structure of the
task and

3 the power and authority of the
position

Fiedler found that these three variables could produce eight possible
combination of situations.

The most favourable of these were
:

a) where there were good leader
member relations

b) where the task was highly
structured

c) the leader had a strong
position power

The least favourable situation
was :

a) where the leader was disliked

b) the task was relatively
unstructured

c) the leader had little position
power.

John Adair came up with his
Action Centred Leadership theory in 1973. Adair saw three variables at work in
the leadership situation.

They are :

Task needs : which can include
the objectives of the business and how these might be best achieved.

In a nutshell, Adair drew a
distinction between an autocrat and leader. People will follow the autocrat, in
a crisis, but at other times will resent and resist him.

Adair sees the leader as having
four key skills :

influence
persuasion
guidance, and support

The adaptive nature of Adair's
work means that it belongs to the Contingency school, and is often used as a
device in management training due to its emphasis on skill development.

One of the earliest attempts [and one of the earliest ethnographic
approach to the understanding of management] to study what managers actually do
was by Henry Mintzberg. Mintzberg in 1973 was concerned that management
theory did not explain what managers actually did. His research concluded that
managers had a range of roles :

RoleDescription

FigureheadThe manager, acting as a symbol
or representative of the organisation, performs diverse ceremonial duties. By
attending Chamber of Commerce meetings, heading the local United Way drive, or
representing the president of the firm at an awards banquet, a manager performs
the figurehead role.

LeaderThe manager, interacting with
subordinates, motivates and develops them. The supervisor who conducts
quarterly performance or selects training opportunities for his or her
subordinates performs the role of leader. This role emphasises the
socioemotional and people-oriented side of leadership and de-emphasises task
activities, which are more often incorporated into the decisional roles.

LiaisonThe manager establishes a
network of contacts to gather information for the organisation. Belonging to
professional associations or meeting over lunch with peers in other
organisations helps the manager perform the liaison role.

MonitorThe manager gathers information
from the environment inside and outside the organisation. He or she may attend
meetings with subordinates, scan company publications, or participate in
companywide committees as a way of performing this role.

DisseminatorThe
manager transmits both factual and value information to subordinates. Managers
may conduct staff meetings, send memoranda to their staff, or meet informally
with them on a one-to-one basis to discuss current and future projects.

SpokespersonThe
manager gives information to people outside the organisation about its
performance and policies. He or she oversees preparation of the annual report,
prepares advertising copy, or speaks at community and professional meetings.

EntrepreneurThe
manager designs and initiates change in the organisation. The supervisor who
redesigns the jobs of subordinates, introduces flexible working hours, or
brings new technology to the job performs this role.

Disturbance

HandlerThe manager deals with problems
that arise when organisational operations break down. A person who finds a new
supplier on short notice for an out-of-stock part, who replaces unexpectedly
absent employees, or who deals with machine breakdown performs this role.

Resourcer Themanager controls the allocation of people, money, material and
time or by scheduling his or her own time, programming subordinates' work
effort, and authorising all significant decisions. Preparation of the budget is
a major aspect of this role.

NegotiatorThe manager participates in
negotiation activities. A manager who hires a new employee may negotiate work
assignments or compensation with that person

Tom Peters and Robert Waterman Jnr wrote "In Search of
Excellence" in 1982. The book still contains much that is of interest
to those who want to learn about the art of management. The chapters on
leadership and motivation are excellent. Peters and Waterman stated that the
rational approach to management and the attempt to provide a theory of
management was not at all successful. Instead they looked at what made
successful businesses work. What were they doing that others were not.

Amongst their conclusions were
the Eight Attributes of Excellence

A bias for action
-- a preference for doing something -- anything -- rather than sending a
question through cycles and cycles of analyses and committee reports

Staying close to the
customer -- learning his preferences and catering
to them

Autonomy and
entrepreneurship -- breaking the corporation into small
companies and encouraging them to think independently and competitively

Productivity through
people -- creating in all employees the awareness
that their best efforts are essential and they will share in the rewards of the
company's success

Hands-on, value driven
- insisting that executive keep in touch with the firm's essential business

Stick to the knitting
- remaining with the business the company knows best

Simple form, lean staff
- few administrative layers, few people at the upper levels

Simultaneous loose-tight
properties - fostering a climate where there is
dedication to the central values of the company combined with tolerance for all
employees who accept those values.

For Peters and Waterman
management needs to be concerned with :

Quality of the product

Looking after the customer and

Looking after employees.

Both Peters and Waterman have
published books since In Search of Excellence. Waterman R (1994) The Frontiers
of Excellence : Learning From Companies That Put People First London Nicholas
Brealey Publishing Ltd is one such book.

The intent as seen in the early
chapters "Learn from the best; find role models to emulate" (p 15)
[We are seeing here evidence of the move towards learning from others and a
move away from the general theory of management approach seen in traits, styles
contingency etc]

Waterman provides examples of
practice form firms such as Motorola, Federal Express and Procter and Gamble.
However, to get into the ethos of the organisation the example of PS 94 a
deprived, overcrowded school in the Bronx district of New York makes for
interesting reading for anyone interested in organisations.In this poorly resourced school :

...reading,
writing and math scores are above national averages, and absentee rates are
low. What seemed most striking on the day I visited was that most of the people
I met were having fun. (p 69)

Coaching and mentoring were
evident in PS 94. Waterman provides a list of attributes of good coaches :

gift
of time

high
expectations

genuine
concern and interest

approachability

informality

competence

protection

sense of fun and humour (pp 71- 7)

Probably the book on practical management that has made an
impact on me in recent times is “NUTS” by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg. the
story of Southwest Airlines,
the original and still profitable low price airline.The first 50 or so pages are about the history of the business.
After that it is about the managing of the company and is compulsive reading
that brings home the point that management is hard work and as Goldsmith and
Clutterbuck say in Winning Streak Mark II is all about spinning plates.

Southwest's mission statement

Southwest
Airlines is dedicated to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with
a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and Company spirit.

We are committed to provide our
Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and
personal growth.Creativity and
innovation are encouraged for improving the same concern, respect and caring
attitude within the Organisation that they are expected to share externally with
every Southwest Customer.

Southwest’s Corporate philosophy

Visionary

Celebrate
everything

Hire the right
people

Limit committees

Keep a warrior
spirit

Keep multiple
scenarios

Minimise paperwork

Be informed

Move fast

Dare to be
different.

-

Benefits of Southwest’s fun culture :

most productive
work force in the industry

working for the fun
of it

low attrition and
absenteeism

high creativity and
innovation

Another book on management that impressed me was Carlzon
J (1989) Moments of Truth : New Strategies for Today's Customer-Driven Economy
New York Harper and Row

At SAS, Carlzon found that the
'new' strategy of decentralising responsibility was difficult to inspire
amongst middle management. The process for empowering employees was not without
problems :

To motivate the
front line and suggest their efforts requires skilled and knowledgeable middle
managers who are proficient at coaching, informing, criticizing, praising,
educating and so forth. Their authority applies to the overall strategies into
practical guidelines that the front line can follow and then mobilizing the
necessary resources for the front line to achieve its objectives. This requires
hard-nosed business planning along with healthy doses of creativity and
resourcefulness. (Carlzon 1989 p 68)

A useful source of information on
leadership is http://leadership.wharton.upenn.edu
where you can receive a newsletter that provides details of latest thoughts on
leadership.In the May 1999 edition of
the Wharton Leadership Digest there is a reference to "Results Based
Leadership" 1999 by Ulrich, Zenger and Smallwood that suggests that when
we look at leadership development we ask questions such as :

What
results do we need to achieve?and

What
must we do to learn and to make things happen?

In other words we must look at
management development from the point of view of outcomes rather than inputs.
Should it [management development]be
customer rather than provider driven?

Jack Welch the CEO of GE told a
meeting on 17 February 1999 that "managers should walk around with a pack
of fertiliser in one hand and a watering can in another" The reason was
the need to grow the manager. But, those who did not grow should be cut back.

Welch said that principles used
at GE included :

Involve
everyone

Create
a learning organisation

Be
agile

Execute
leadership

Leadership involves learning the
four e's

Energy

Energise
others

Edge

Execute

The Guernsey Business School breakfast seminars have
looked at many areas of recent research that will help the manager become more
competent in dealing with specific situations. We have looked at subjects such
asmanaging change, examining this
topic from the decision making angle; managing performance that pays particular
attention to how the balanced scorecard can help our developing of strategy as
well as providing a superb means of control; micropolitics and its potentially
destructive affect on organisation; emotional intelligence and its part in
developing our staff; as well as aspects of appraisal including feedback and
360 degree appraisal. These seminars, using latest research and ideas, all
contribute to the updated management database that is available to us and
necessary for the successful manager.

First, Abrashof had to redeem
himself – change from the traditional command and control system of management.

Abrashof realised the need to
empower and to unleash the creativity and know-how below decks.

"To set it loose and make it
flourish, a leader should neither command nor control; he should provide vision
and values and then guide, coach and even follow his people".(Abrashof, p 138)

What is interesting is that
Michael Abrashof fashions his leadership model on William Perry, the Secretary
for Defence, for whom he worked between 1994 – 1997.

Abrashof was impressed by the way in which Perry listened
to people and how his active listening encouraged people to do things for him.

When he took command of Benfold,
Abrashof vowed to treat every encounter with every person on the ship as the
most important thing in his world at that time.Only then could he give his full, undivided attention.

Abrashof gives examples of how
listening to the lower deck leads to changes, not only in Benfold but also in
the US Navy.

One of the signs of real
empowerment was that Abrashof was able to tell people "This is your
ship" and the crew understood that he meant it.Give people responsibility and they will respond.

The real test of trust came some
months later when Benfold underwent, at sea, part of its technical
inspection.The tricky part of leaving
port was left to the most junior officer.

Just a few days before the
inspection, the Master at Arms (Master Chief) recounted a conversation he had
overheard.One sailor was telling
another "I don't know what we're going to do if we don't do well on this
inspection."The reply was "I
know, we don't want to let the captain down."

This article
on leadership in the US Marines makes for interesting reading, especially when
we consider the lessons that can be learnt form Abrashof. More importantly what
lessons can we learn that will allow us to improve our performance and maintain
our hard fought competitive advantage.

Officer
Development: U.S. Marine Corps University By Jason Santamaria,
Wharton MBA Student (WG 2001) and former U.S. Marine Corps officer

A team of Wharton MBA students, faculty,
and staff visited the U.S. Marine Corps University at Quantico, Virginia, in
December, 2000, to observe three schools where the Marines train their
front-line leaders. Our purpose was to draw out lessons that can be
applied to teaching leadership at the Wharton School and more generally in
business management.

Observation of the three schools prompted us to identify four
commonalities that we deemed especially useful for teaching leadership in
any setting: (1) the usefulness of small discussion groups, (2) the value
of a learning-by-doing approach, (3) the importance of feedback and
self-evaluation, and (4) the effectiveness of a "leadership reaction
course" for simulating real life leadership situations.

The Marines viewed the small group
discussion forum as an especially
effective means to leverage shared experiences and engage student interest.

An instructor facilitates the discussion of
a hypothetical case or
controversial topic among a group of six to twelve students. Students
must
not only clearly articulate their opinions, but also provide supporting
arguments that substantiate their points. This prompts vigorous
discussion
of important leadership topics and drives students to think through their
own views. Marines look to develop leaders with "a willingness to decide
and a bias for action."

Marines rely heavily on feedback to
reinforce the lessons learned "while doing." Upon completion of each
discrete task, an exhaustive debrief ensues. The student leader must first
evaluate himself or herself and provide an explanation to the group as to why
he or she chose a particular course of action.

The group then asks questions of the leader
and provides alternatives Finally, the instructor provides additional
input.While this experience can be
trying, invaluable lessons are learnt.

Quite
true, says management professor Michael
Useem, director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change
Management. Indeed, if managers wish to be effective, they must learn how to
lead the people they report to as well as the employees they oversee. Useem
calls this process "leading up."

Leaders
have always been required to lead both up and down, but it is more important to
lead up today than in years past. As organisations decentralise, managers must
recognize that to accomplish their goals they must exert greater influence on
superiors.

"Leading
up is the act of working with people above you - whether one boss, several
bosses, a chief executive, a board of directors or even stockholders - to help
them and you get a better job done," says Useem, whose book, Leading Up: How To Lead Your Boss So You
Both Win, is to be published in October by Random House.
"Organisations need more overall direction from below to think
strategically, communicate persuasively and act decisively."

Virtually
any organisation can benefit from more upward leadership, Useem says. Everyone
knows an executive, director, political leader or religious figure who could
have been more effective had they only been given direction or assistance by
the people for whom they were responsible.

Useem
notes that leading up is not the same as managing up, just as managing down
differs from leading down. "When you manage down, you hire good people,
work out an appropriate compensation system for them, review their performance
and meet deadlines," Useem explains. "Leading down involves more than
that. You have to add value to an office, not just run it. You have to go well
beyond where you are now. You have to excite people, mobilize the troops. Often
that also entails large-scale changes in the architecture of an
organisation."

In the
same way, he says, leading up is more difficult than just managing up. Keeping
your boss informed about what you are hearing from your sales people in the
field about customer needs is an example of managing up. Leading up, by
contrast, might involve offering your superior a strategic insight or plan that
could open up a new market for the company. Or, if your boss is falling short
in conveying his or her vision for the firm, leading up would require that you
coach your boss to help him or her find more effective ways for getting the
message out.

Nor
does leading up mean trying to ingratiate yourself with your superiors, being a
nagging fault-finder who criticizes people or undermining someone’s authority.
Instead, Useem says, leading up is an "affirmative calling" to help a
boss accomplish what everyone and the organisation wants or needs to
accomplished. The premise is that superiors need all the leadership assistance
they can get.

Useem
says almost anyone in an organisation can lead up if the organisation
encourages it. "If you’re a middle or top person at Motorola,
Hewlett-Packard or Deutsche Bank, you should want all the help you can get from
the ranks below. The markets these companies face are far too complex for any one
person to see it all. But it’s also critical that companies create a culture
that helps people understand that you do want upward feedback, that you want
coaching and assistance in being effective, that you want all the strategic
insights on your markets that people below can provide."

If not
done properly, however, leading up can be risky, especially if your superiors
are not ready for it. "You always have to undertake it carefully,"
Useem says. "But some bosses won’t tolerate any upward leadership, and
with them you may not want to risk ending your career at the company in trying
to provide it."

A
recent example of leading up took place aboard the U.S. surveillance plane that
was forced to land after it was struck and damaged by a Chinese fighter jet. The
commander of the U.S. aircraft relied heavily on information relayed to him by
his crew as he made split-second decisions amidst terrible chaos about whether
to abandon the plane or try to land it safely, and how to go about destroying
sensitive intelligence information on board.

"The
crew members did what they knew they had to do on behalf of their mission and
commander," says Useem. "The flight engineer later said, ‘Thank God
for our training.’ That was a very telling comment. The commander carried total
authority on that aircraft, but he had people on board who were well-trained in
the art of taking charge and of carrying out their responsibilities and
collectively acting as if they were all in command."

The
U.S. Marine Corps, where rank is also highly delineated and prized, has
embraced the concept of leading up as well. When Marine officers plan a
military action, they ask subordinates to speak up about what they think may be
fatal flaws in the plan. "If you do that repeatedly, your subordinates
come to appreciate that you really do want their insights, and they will become
believers," Useem says. "Also remember that in asking for upward
feedback, just because you did not first appreciate certain ideas yourself in
no way undermines your rank or threatens your stature in the minds of
subordinates."

Managing
up – giving boss appropriate factual data

Leading up –
giving boss strategic insight or plan i.e American spy plane and China and
Michael Abrashof study

What makes the good entrepreneurial leader? By Vipin
Gupta and Ian Macmillan Wharton Business School. April 26 2001.

Gupta and Macmillan ask how can
we create a spirit of continuous experimentation , capturing opportunities that
emerge from our experiments and ideas?

According to Gupta and Macmillan
the entrepreneurial leader must perform two functions

define gravity
– break down team members real and perceived barriers about what can and cannot
be achieved.

Gupta and Macmillan claim we
should work the entrepreneurial spirit into our management styles.

Some practical questions

Are we really
willing to give power / authority / empowerment to colleagues? Do we have
trust, confidence in our colleagues?

Do we have
sufficient corporate emotional intelligence to adequately develop and motivate
people?

Is any
empowerment real?What do we mean by
empowerment?

If we are
prepared to empower, do we know the expertise that exists in our organisation?

How can we
convince people to articulate their skills and competencies?Do we understand the skills and competencies
we need from our staff?

Are we, as
consumers ready to take the training needs initiative from the providers?

Some helpful strategies for developing
managerial knowledge and competence

1 Create a culture that
encourages and enables the mid set needed to meet such challenges

2 Develop our knowledge base of
modern management research

3 Allow some of the leading
managers and writers on management to teach, coach, advise you through your
reading of their experiences.Your
reflection and reconstruction of their stories to the environment of your
workplace will be a sound learning experience.

Conclusion

We can develop our management styles as a means of
managing situations. However, these skills will only be fully achieved through
a continuing process of understanding the latest developments in management.

We must also appreciate that management techniques and
initiatives will only work in an environment where the culture is supportative,
leadership is committed and change management is well developed.